


Hope is the thing with feathers

by AshaCrone



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Implied Character Death, Krolia and Keith on a space whale, M/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Season/Series 06, s6e2 missing scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 08:20:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15139004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshaCrone/pseuds/AshaCrone
Summary: Keith and Krolia experience visions of their past together... and see glimpses of the possible future.For a paladin of Voltron, most of those glimpses will be grim.But sometimes, you find hope.





	Hope is the thing with feathers

**Author's Note:**

> Mild content warning for some graphic birth imagery and an altered scene.

The light had crawled like a living thing, carving harsh shadows through the debris field of the Quantum Abyss. 

It had moved slowly- almost too slowly to actually be light. Whatever it was, though, had made Krolia dive in front of him, sweeping him into her arms to shield him- 

Only to find himself somewhere else. Somewhere else, watching Krolia and his Dad in the bathroom of their old, ramshackle ranch house. The house he remembered from before it burned down. The house he had shared with his Dad before… 

_We’ll name him Yorak._

The conversation wasn’t as important- Keith knew that he had been named after his great-uncle Keith- as watching Krolia hold him. She was seated in their ancient claw-footed bathtub, naked, holding an infant to her breast. Blood and fluids soaked the threadbare rags and pillows used to cushion her as her as his Dad held a pair of shears under a small torch to sterilize them. They’re cutting the cord when the sun dies-

\- And Keith finds himself in hell.

_Hello, Keith._

Stars are overhead, behind him, lit by dozens of tubes that he can’t see. They surround him, taunting him, and he knows that _something is very wrong-_

Because Shiro is standing in front of him, eyes glowing a hellish red. Gone was his smiles, his kindness. Cold contempt, a sneer- 

“- _not going_ anywhere!”

The vision shook, trembled, before fluttering away like a leaf in the wind. 

Or dying like the light. 

Keith gasped, coming back to himself, asking Krolia what happened.

“Time collapses this close to dark stars,” she answered, watching his panic subside. “Going through the light causes glimpses of the past. And the future.”

“The future- how?” He got to his feet, staring at her. “And that was you-”

“The moment after you were born,” she said quietly. She was looking down at herself, one hand over her belly. “Who was the man with you? You knew him?”

“Know him. He’s Shiro. Uh- a friend of mine,” Keith answered. He looked out at the Quantum Abyss. “Was that- is that going to happen?”

“It’s a possibility. We always stand on the knife edge of now, cutting off the thousands of potential possibilities with each moment and thought. The light can show you what might happen, but how likely it is, I don’t know,” Krolia told him.

~*~*~*~*~

The next time Keith has a vision of the future, he realizes he’s in Voltron.

He’s flying as fast as he can-

_-can you compensate?_

_-We’re halfway through our burn!_

Ahead of him is a wormhole, purple, swirling, dark, and on the other side is Shiro. He doesn’t know how it got there- wasn’t Allura the only one who could make them? But it didn’t matter, he had to get through.

Hunk is calling a countdown, they’re burning through their power, they’re doing their damnedest to get get there-

When the hole evaporates to nothingness and Keith is howling, screaming-

He comes back to himself, and Krolia is watching him with worried eyes. 

They were still leaping from asteroid to asteroid, doing their best to avoid the drop offs. “What was-”

“I was in Voltron,” he told her, and he saw her eyes go wide as realization hit her. 

“You are-”

“No.” He straightened, and looked out into the dark. “I’m not a Paladin anymore.” His shoulders slumped, before he managed to control himself. 

“Something had just gone wrong,” she said, looking away. “Maybe- Voltron was too heavy, right?”

Keith nodded. 

“If we’re looking at a battle that’s going wrong, let’s try paying attention to those moments, if we see them again.” Krolia took a deep breath, and crossed her arms. “Maybe we can do something about it.”

~*~*~*~*~

Keith had taken discovering how Krolia came to Earth just fine.

Her declaring that she would protect the Blue Lion? Also fine. 

He had been wrecked, later, learning that his mother had left to protect him; it was good to finally know, and the wall he had put up between them started to crumble. That she had made a choice… it ached, like a wound that had been cauterized. The infection was draining. He could let himself start to heal.

What he had _not_ expected to see was that he was conceived in front of the Blue Lion. 

Krolia hadn’t been able to look at him for quite a long time after that. It was- well, it was _nice_ to know that his parents had been… compatible… but thinking about that was just… They didn’t really get over their mutual embarrassment until they had jumped on the Space Whale and Keith had found Wolf. 

He hadn’t even thought about taking the pup in. He had let the little creature run away, watching her out of the corner of his eye as she slunk up, sniffing and whining and Keith hadn’t even thought about offering her some of the meat they had cut from the giant-land-crab- _things_. She ran away the first time. He threw the meat to the bushes; she tried to sneak in to eat it.

By the fifth time, she was taking it from his hand.

By the twelfth, Keith had a new friend.

He wondered, scratching her ears and telling her she was a good girl, pretty girl, if this was how Shiro had felt when they first met.

The next time the light touched him, he saw Shiro again. Shiro, standing in front of him. They stood in the same hell-scape, alone, but this time, Shiro smiled at him.

This time, Shiro welcomed him with open arms, and Keith ran to him.

_-taking you home-_  
_\- never have to worry again, Keith. Never worry about a thing. Ever again._

Metal fingers broke through his rib cage and he could _smell_ his flesh sear and boil as he looked down to see his still beating heart in Shiro’s hands and he opened his mouth to say _Shiro_ -

Krolia was there. She pulled him to her chest and rocked him back and forth as he cried, jagged shards of betrayal and horror making him scramble away to throw up. 

“B-Keith,” Krolia said after a few moments as he knelt there, and he could feel Wolf’s paws on his back as she yipped and whined, trying to get his attention. “Hey. There was something wrong with him. I could see his eyes. They weren’t right.” She started rubbing his back. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why would he- he’s Shiro, he never gave up- would _never give up_ -”

She stopped for a moment, before she returned to stroking his back. “Keith. Something was wrong with him. Breathe.”

His chest was heaving, and he couldn’t get words out. 

Shiro had just- he had just killed him. Lied to him, then killed him. Ripped out his heart. Literally. The one person he had trusted, believed in without question, had just-

Without Shiro, _what was even the point?_

Keith shook his head when Krolia finally offered him his own hood to wipe his face with. A few moments later, a cup of water (made from one of the cleaned shells of the crab-aliens) was thrust under his nose. He took it, staring for a few moments before bringing it to his lips.

“He wasn’t himself. The man you know had never hurt you before- but we had another vision of him acting strangely,” Krolia said. She was petting his head. “Keith, keep breathing. Let it pass.”

It took Wolf poking her nose in his face for him to finally shake the despair roiling in his stomach. He hugged her, and she whimpered but held still, before licking the side of his face until he finally pulled away.

“How could he do this?” Keith croaked.

“We don’t know. But when we meet him again… put off embracing him until we know more, okay?”

~*~*~*~

_No words. Just action._

_He was lunging forward- and Allura dived in the way. Allura, staring down at his Marmora Blade, as he nearly cut her in half. What remained of her heart and lungs made the metal vibrate in his hands-_

_Behind her, Lotor stared down, blood pouring from his mouth as they both dropped when his Blade returned to dagger form._

“What the hell does this even _mean?_ ” Keith snarled, throwing down the branch he had been about to toss for Wolf.

“I presume you mean that rhetorically, and you aren’t trying to tell a dark star what it chooses to show us?” Krolia asked. “Because if we’re lining up to complain, I’ve got a few to add.”

She did have almost as much reason as he did to be frustrated. They had seen glimpses of her own past; enough important moments for them both to be convinced they weren’t entirely random. Her Blade initiation, her first assignment, the first time his Dad had taken her dancing out under the moon while playing Frank Sinatra on an old turntable. A flash of a future where she was watching the Lions roar together. The most obscure one had been when she had, apparently, been watching several children play together. 

Keith had liked that one. Two kids- a boy and a girl- playing tag like they hadn’t a care in the world. 

Wolf decided to teleport into his face, throwing her weight against his chest and knocking him onto his back. Her heavy weight made him grunt, but it was impossible to stay angry and upset when Wolf was covering his face in kisses. 

But the future visions just made _no sense_.

He had seen himself leave the paladins to die as he chased Shiro. He had seen himself deliver the final strike on Lotor while Shiro stabbed him from behind. He had seen himself, standing before a crowd of rebels, Marmora and Imperial Galra, and fling his torch during the Kral Zera and be proclaimed the new Emperor. 

He had almost jumped the space whale when a vision showed himself breaking Pidge’s neck while Shiro stood over them, holding a knife to his own throat and bearing down. Blood was beading under Shiro’s right ear and rolling down his neck even as Keith felt the crunch of bone.

It had taken Krolia and Wolf _hours_ to calm him down, and he had been listless for weeks. 

“The only thing that makes sense to me is that whatever’s coming, you’re going to be faced with a lot of different decisions,” Krolia had finally said. Wolf was draped over Keith’s lap while he rubbed her tummy, endlessly telling her how amazing she was. (Until she stole his knife like a little jerk and he had to chase her around the whale. Keeping her entertained took half a sleep cycle) “None of those decisions will be easy. But they all lead to different futures.” She leaned back. “That’s… not a bad thing.”

Keith looked at her. “How is that not a bad thing?”

“It means that your choices matter, Keith.”

~*~*~*~*~

Keith had never thought he would have to fight Shiro.

But here they were. 

The last vision had cut out as Keith had been beheaded. Now, he was looking down at Shiro, the Black Bayard in his right and his Mamora Blade in his left. Shiro’s right arm was gone.

_-Keith? Let me go, Keith-_ Shiro was looking up with him, pleading, self-loathing and pain so thick that Keith fell to his knees. _-I’m- I’m so sorry-_ Tears ran down his face as explosions rocked the station. The supports on the platform snapped, and Keith found himself clinging, shoulders twisting as he could feel cartilage snapping in their sockets as he struggled to hold himself and Shiro up.

Shiro was looking up at him, staring. _-Just let go, Keith!-_

_-No!_

Shiro looked down, then back up at him, his lips moving. Keith couldn’t hear him, but-

_-I love you-_

He twisted his arm, and Keith howled, watching Shiro fall to the uncaring planet below.

~*~*~*~*~

“Do you think it could be changed?” Keith asked, later, staring into the fire. “Am I going to-” He wasn’t sure where to end that sentence. They had seen him go mad, seen him take Black and destroy what was left of the Galra Empire. Seen him take over the Empire and conquer Earth in his grief. Seen him wander the stars, alone, in a stolen pod.

“Which part?” she asked, and Keith smothered a twinge of guilt. She had been there, for all of his breakdowns. For all of his tears. She had handled it as a soldier and as a mother and Keith was grateful, that after a year with him, she could still stand to look at him. “Because from what I can see, there’s… a lot of different ways that whatever is happening could play out.”

“Where I don’t kill everyone and somehow save Shiro.” When the visions weren’t showing him every single thing that could go wrong, Keith knew she had seen Shiro bringing him to the Garrison. Teaching him how to cope with his anger. 

Keith following Shiro around with hearts in his eyes.

“... maybe. But you will need to assess every situation extremely carefully,” Krolia replied. “Be patient. Think things through. Think you can do that?”

Keith exhaled, squaring his shoulders. He would.

~*~*~*~*~

He dreamt, sometimes.

He and Krolia would take turns on watch, and he hoped she hadn’t seen him, because if seeing himself be conceived had been embarrassing…

Himself, looking down at Shiro while he threaded their fingers together. Tasting his skin. Covering Shiro’s body with his own and thrusting inside. Listening to Shiro call his name _-yes, baby-_

Krolia had been someplace else when he woke up from that one. Keith had been happy for the privacy. 

He supposed he needed those dreams. He remembered one from earlier, holding a small, squirmy bundle in his arms as he paced back and forth, humming and patting her back. _-Shhh, don’t want to wake Papa-_

It was a small, simple thing. Kind of stupid, really. But it felt like… hope. Hope, for the first time in a long time. 

Maybe he could do this. 

He looked out at the distant stars peeking out from behind an asteroid. Shiro had promised he would never give up on Keith. 

And Keith would never, ever, give up on Shiro.

**Author's Note:**

> So. Who is still wrecked by season 6?
> 
> This was inspired by several different art pieces I saw on tumblr, so I'll link to them after I find them again.


End file.
